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From: brg@netcom.com (Bruce R. Gilson)
Subject: Macedonian (was: Flemish and Dutch)
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References: <1995Apr24.141327.14665@yvax.byu.edu> <3np1oj$i8m@news.ccit.arizona.edu> <3ouiag$jfm@giga.bga.com> <3out06$97d@nntp5.u.washington.edu>
Date: Mon, 22 May 1995 12:05:49 GMT
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In article <3out06$97d@nntp5.u.washington.edu>,
Robert Beer <bbeer@u.washington.edu> wrote:
[text deleted]
>
>These distinctions can change according to political realities as well. 
>Example:  Serbian and Macedonian are now considered two separate
>languages.  Standard Serbian of Belgrade has seven cases, nouns that
>decline, etc.  Standard Macedonian of Skopje has three cases only, which
>affect pronouns but not nouns.  Before the creation of Jugoslavia, and the
>Macedonian republic, what is now considered "Macedonia" was just south
>Serbia, its inhabitants considered themselves either serbian or bulgarian
>depending on the church alliance.  Their language was considered a Serbian
>dialect.  The ones that allied with the Bulgiarian church considered their
>language "bulgarian."  (The slavic speaking "macedonians" of northern
>greece still do) Then the border was drawn, a national consciousness
>formed, and the standard Macedonian language was defined.  But the real
>linguistic distinctions are fuzzy - traveling south from Belgrade to
>Skopje, the change is gradual, at no point is there one village where they
>speak "serbian" with a sudden break to "macedonian".  What is a dialect of
>what is defined by the political border.  Serbs and Macedonians can
>understand each other mostly, though it varies with distance of course. 
>Yet Serbian and Macedonian are considered separate languages today.  

As far as I can tell, Macedonian was
considered a separate language many
years before the independence of Mace-
donia came about. Macedonian was men-
tioned in DeBray's book on Slavic lang-
uages, just to give one example, dec-
ades ago.
